What a fan wants

[veronica_rich]

This is going to smack slightly of reduxing elibad's recent post in one of my communities titled What A Will Wants, but I hadn't looked at it in two weeks (or whenever it was posted) and actually had to go looking for it, for the URL, when I thought of this, just to make sure I wasn't completely copying her post.

This is not a spoiler, for I really know nothing about the outcome of AWE, and I think it's speculation that everyone by now has heard about Will - becoming captain of the Flying Dutchman. (So I'm not putting it behind a cut.) And I tend to believe a fellow fan who is neutral on the whole 'ship issue that this movie will go the way of traditional Disney fare, with the Hero and Heroine ending up together - in this case, Will and Elizabeth.

I want to get those out of the way. Let's just think about Will, alone, for this post. I was reading another community and for the 1,233,234th time it was brought up whether he would end the movie with Elizabeth. And that got me to thinking: How much do I really care if he makes up with her or not? I'm not belitting any fan who really wants this. I'm not even belitting any fan who really wants to see him on the Flying Dutchman ... though frankly, I think that's become more of a "default" position for those of us who like Will, who would rather see that instead of a dead Will Turner (obviously this doesn't include the fans who just don't like Will and want him out of the way - but, I presume nobody would reply to this who doesn't like him at least a little, anyway *G*).

What would you like to see for Will after AWE? It can be more than one thing - a blacksmith and a pirate? A merchant sailor and a father? Please try to think of something other than who he'll end up with. Aside from a relationship with a romantic partner - or instead of it - what can you see WILL doing (preferably happily, or at least with some satisfaction)? I'd like to see him in the American Colonies or somewhere similarly "new" in terms of law and order, a place where he can reinvent himself and make his own little fortune based on his abilities, not his former social strata - perhaps running a metal/farrier/swordsmith shop and employing an escaped black family as paid employees to help him out. (Don't ask me why that last part popped into my head - I've learned with creative writing to just go with whatever shows up. Plus, I like that Will would totally do something like that.) I suppose he could also play some part in local politics/lawmaking, since he's a smart guy and has learned some savvy from Jack that I'd hate to see wasted only on work.

Comments

[gloromeien.livejournal.com]

You've touched on something here that sort of needles at me about the Will/Elizabeth dynamic, which, though far from ideal, I think is the intended and appropriate ending. Even after all these months that they've apparently been spending time together, Elizabeth doesn't seem to understand very much about Will. She trusts him implicitly, but that's hardly more than a surface insight into his character, and, after all, he has always been socially inferior to her. But she doesn't seem to really know him, what's unique and wonderful about him, and that's an aspect to the relationship that's always needled me. I think it's basically due to poor writing more than anything, but the text we're given is the one we must interpret, so...

Excellent comments above, BTW.

-G. ;)

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

Agreed. What is it she SEES in Will? Is she so enamored with the long-held notion that he's a pirate - first fixed upon when he was a boy with the medallion - that she's missing other things about him that make him equally worthwhile?